Ben's heart broke for his girlfriend every single day for the next week with the scene from the first night repeating itself every single night with the only variation being Mal's apartment. It took the girl a week to opened up, but he was patient with her not forcing any conversation that seemed to make her shut down. However, he was worry about her, so he called Carlos two days after Mal had the conversation with Jane and without asking for any details Ben asked the boy if he could do anything to better the situation. Carlos was quiet for a few seconds and then told him no. "The only thing you can do is be there for Mal. After she tells you what happened, we can talk but for now just be there for her."
With that in mind, he just tried to be as available as possible for her even though each day he hoped she would tell him what happened with no positive result. So when the night came where he was saying goodbye to her an opening the door to go to his apartment, she called his name. When Ben turned, he saw Mal tearing up, and in two steps he was in front of her hugging her and telling her that everything was going to be ok. After she calmed down enough, they sat on the couch, and she finally shared with Ben what happened between her and Jane that night.
Apparently, when Mal arrived at the apartment, Jane didn't want to see her. It took Carlos over an hour to convinced her to come out of their room and talk to Mal and when she did things only got worst. Jane was rude from the beginning, but every time Mal tried to tell her that she was acting childish the girl would only tell her that she was wrong and that like always she was blind to the truth of the situation because Mal was a dreamer. Jane went as far as to say to Mal that she was going to be sorry about the way that she was acting.
"She told me that I was blind and didn't see that you were going to act just like Harry did in the end. That the only reason, I was not following her advice was because you were hot and I didn't like to be alone, and when you finally show your true colors and break my heart, I was going to be asking for her forgiveness." Mal's voice was so low in the last sentence that Ben hope he hadn't heard what he thought he heard but in the end he knew that it was true.
Anger was the first feeling that invaded him; Ben wished he could give Jane a piece of his mind. How dare she said all those things to Mal, she was supposed to be one of his closest friends, and now she was the one hurting Mal while accusing him of doing it. However, his anger had to wait because Mal continue with her story and her voice was getting shakier by the second. It seemed that after everything Jane said his girlfriend try yet again to tell the girl that she didn't see the real situation, but Jane told her that if she didn't value her opinion, then they shouldn't work together or even speak again.
"I try to tell her that she was overreacting. I told her that you weren't like she thought you were and that with time she was going to realize that, but she didn't want to hear me. In the end, I either agree with everything she said about you or she was leaving me, so I let her go." Ben understood a little more why the girl seemed so discouraged over the week. Mal had not only fought with a friend, but she loosed the support Jane gave her at work and sure that seemed shallow but at work they spent the day together and eventually made up from whatever argument they had out or inside the place.
Guilt invaded him; he was the reason all of this was happening to Mal. Ben tried to remember what exactly he did to Jane for her to dislike him so much, sure when he started to have those awkward encounters with her he decided to avoid her. Maybe he could have tried more to be pleasant with her; Ben tried different scenarios in his mind where he could have proved to Jane that he was a good guy, but nothing specific came to mind.
Mal's hand was suddenly on his chin gently making him turned to see her. "Hey are you, ok?"
"What? Mal I should be the one asking you that." The girl smiled at him and gently kissed him making the boy lose his train of thought for a couple of minutes.
"I know you are probably wondering if there was anything you could have done to make Jane think differently. Trust me there is nothing; she made up her mind without knowing anything about you, and she was just waiting for you to make a mistake to glow.
The couple continued to talk, and at the end of the night, Ben felt like Mal looked a little better now that she shared what happened. He also realized that the only reason she didn't tell him what happened before was that Mal didn't want him to feel guilty about what had transpired between her and Jane.
As the days went by Mal seemed more tired it proved to be difficult for her to managed to find someone to help her while continuing to meet her day to day work. Still, Ben proved to be of great help each day he would see her at the office and brought her something to eat at lunch. He would ask if there was something he could help with and sometimes he even went around the office to see if he could assist in some way. Jay and Lonnie also visited Mal, and both of them were really helpful, especially Jay who was a marketing wizard.
"You know Mal; I have a friend that use to be an intern at Martha Stewart's company a while back, she moved to others similar companies, and now she is looking to move back to New York if you want I can introduce her to you." Mal didn't know how to tell Jay that she wasn't ready to give up on the chance that Jane would come back.
As weeks pass the amount of work started to overwhelm her, and she couldn't deny that she needed someone to help her maintained everything running. Soon it was time to travel to different cities to promote a new line and meet different vendors, so Mal started to travel, Ben tried to go with her as much as possible, but he was needed at his magazine too. It took a toll on his work, and at the end, Jay had to talk to him out of going to places with Mal even if that meant that the couple wouldn't see each other for weeks. Finally, one night while they facetime Mal told Ben about her reservations but she also told him how tired she felt about everything that was going on.
After they ended the call, Ben wrote an email to Azis about the entire situation in it he asked his friend if he thought there was anything he could do about the situation. In fact, he told him that he was going to call Jane the next day to talk to the girl.
He woke to an early call the next day, groggily he search for his phone thinking that it was Mal that needed to talk to him. However, when he finally found it the face of Evie was the one looking back at him from his screen. "Ben, Can you put a shirt and then answer the phone the next time? but for now put a shirt now I'll wait."
The boy apologized and went to get one and put it on. Soon he was back asking Evie if everything was ok with her and Azis. The girl seemed confused at first but told Ben that everything was fine with them and she was calling because Azis told her about his email.
"Ben I understand why you want to talk to Jane. I think that alone shows that you care about Cam more than Jane gives you credit for and on that note. Listen, don't call her, don't do anything. You are doing exactly what you should be doing. You are helping Mal as much as you can not only by going to her office and seeing what you can do there but also taking care of her. I have talked to Jane, and she thinks she is right about the way she is acting, we all know that's wrong but I want to make clear is that she is not ready to listen to other people. Honestly, I pity Carlos because she must be impossible to live with now." The conversation continued for a while, and the only thing that was constantly repeated was that he was not to contact Jane at any cost.
He told Evie about the call he made to Carlos before Mal explained everything. "I never call him after that. I didn't think that it was right to do it. I don't have a problem with him, but I know that I wouldn't be able to contain my opinions about his girlfriend, and after all, I know he wouldn't appreciate me speaking poorly about her."
Evie agreed with that, and the conversation continued, now centering more on Mal and her inability to move on with the hiring of someone else to cover Jane's place in the company. Finally, the girl told him to contact Jay's friend and ask her to visit Mal in a social setting so that she could see herself interacting with the girl. "Tell her that you are asking her to come so she could meet her so that Mal doesn't feel like we are setting her up."
With that in mind, he called Jay and soon everything was planned for all of them to have dinner the day of Mal's returned. With that settle, Ben started to think of the best way to bring the situation to Mal's attention. The boy was going on with his day when Mal called him to rant about the amount of work that she was doing on her trip. Ben felt bad that his girlfriend was dealing with this alone in another city and so he took a spare of the moment decision and bought a ticket to meet her at her hotel that same night.
That night Mal was laying on her bed in the hotel room waiting for Ben's call. He usually called her close to nine o'clock but now it was almost ten thirty, and there was no sign of him. She decided to call him, and he didn't pick when she facetime him but instead call her without the video.
"Babe! Sorry I couldn't answer I'm just arriving home. How are you?" Ben seemed to be a little out of breath which made Mal a little nervous, where exactly was he and why didn't he accept the video chat. She tried to ask him that, but he didn't really give her an answer, upset about the situation she told him to call her when he was home and hang up on him.
Ten minutes later while she waited for Ben to called her someone knocked on the door, and at the same time, her phone rang announcing a video chat from Ben. The girl answered the phone hoping that he could be there with her so he would open the door instead of her. The knock on the door came again as she raised her phone to her face and noticed the background on Ben's phone and the smile he had on her face.
"I'm home can you open the door, please?" Mal didn't know what to do so for a couple of seconds she just stood there confused. Then everything hit her at once, and she threw her phone on her bed and opened the door to find Ben standing there.
A repeat of what happened when Ben arrived from Paris happened which made both of them happy. Except this time they couldn't make a weekend out of it because Mal had meetings the next day, but she didn't mind missing some hours of sleep to be with her boyfriend.
The alarm went off just two hours after the couple had finally go to sleep, and the only thing they did was snuggle closer to each other; Ben even dropped a couple of kisses on Mal's neck making her hummed a little. Their second alarmed went off making Mal stirred a little and turned towards Ben to kissed him. One kiss became two, and so they started their activities again only to be interrupted by Mal's phone ringing. They tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't stop ringing so groaning with annoyment Mal went to look for her phone.
It was then that she realized that at that time she was supposed to be in a meeting. Mal answered, and found herself having an awkward conversation about why she wasn't in the office yet. Mal decided to tell them part of the truth; she hadn't really been able to sleep last night, so she had overslept. While the person on the phone seemed concerned about Mal's situation Ben was laying in bed smiling at how uncomfortable she looked, he decided to play a little, and so he stood from the bed and went to stand behind her. Mal was so focused that she didn't notice him at first, but as soon as his lips touch her shoulder, the girl lost all concentration. He continued his way towards her neck while Mal struggled to understand what the person on the phone was saying. Finally, she took a step forward and then turned towards him putting her hand in his mouth to prevent him from continuing to kiss her and made her best effort at making a severe expression.
Mal managed to reschedule her meeting for lunchtime so she could still have enough time to make another appointment that she had scheduled for later on the day. Once she ended the call, she removed her hand from Ben's mouth which revealed a bright smile. "Really Ben? Did you think that was ok?"
The boy didn't miss a bit to answer her with a kiss which only brought back memories of what they were doing before the call interrupted them and Mal was up to pick up from where they leave it. Hours later she made to her meeting a little out of breath but with a big smile on her face.
Ben was staying another day, so the couple had a lovely date night in a beautiful restaurant that Mal always wanted to try. Even though he was afraid to ruin the moment he took this opportunity to talk about the dinner he had planned for when Mal came back with Jay's friend.
"I know how you feel, but you need to think of the rest of the people in the office. You are trying your best Mal, and you are doing a wonderful job, but you know that there are things that are not getting done. Just meet Carrie if you don't like her fine, but at least think about it." The boy finished and intertwined his fingers with hers over the table giving her a reassuring smile.
As always time flew by and soon Ben went back to New York and a couple of days later Mal did the same. The girl called Ben announcing her arrival at the city and trying to convinced her boyfriend that it would be best if they canceled the dinner. "I know that I agree with the dinner Ben, but the reality is that I'm not ready to hire someone else. So it would be a waste of time for everyone there."
Ben closed his eyes trying to stay calm when he went to visit Mal he saw how tired she look. Sure he didn't help her to rest, but at least he was sure that he had been a welcome distraction. Still, that trip was proved that Mal was running herself to the ground just to stay on top of things and even then she wasn't able to do everything herself. He talked to her again about the need for help in the calls that came after he came back and she reluctantly agreed that she might need someone.
"Look Mal. I'm not going to call off the dinner. Also, I'm not going to force you to come if you don't feel like you could even talk to Carrie at all. So if you want to can come, we'll talk then, and if you don't well, I'll see you tomorrow. " He said his goodbye and hung up the phone; Ben knew that he needed to be supportive, but he wasn't going to let his girlfriend just overwork herself because she didn't want to admit that Jane wasn't coming back or at least not for now.
There was a tiny part of him that wonder if Mal would at some point resent him for being the reason Jane was gone. Maybe the reason she didn't want to hire someone was that she was getting herself ready to admit that Jane was right. A little defeated he send a quick text to Jay telling him that Mal wasn't coming but that the dinner was still on and then finished cooking everything and got his place prepared for his guests, although when he started to get the table wishing that she would come in the end.
When Jay arrived, he noticed how discourage Ben looked and asked him what was going on. Ben told him, and for the first time, Jay didn't tell him that he was wrong. "I don't think Mal feels like that Ben, but I do hope she doesn't feel like she has to give you up to have her friend back. I can't even fathom what that would feel like, I know we wouldn't do that to each other no matter what. Sure I hated Audrey, but I was never going to make you choose."
Ben smiled at that thinking that if Jay had done that he would have chosen him, but Jay was right neither of them would have done that to each other that's not what friends do. The boys hug just as Lonnie came into the kitchen to tell them that Carrie had arrived and smiled at the scene, those boys were so cute sometimes. Jay had managed to call Carrie and told her that Mal was not attending but assure her that this could be a lovely evening between friends.
Contrary to what Ben expected the night was a complete success. Everyone laughed at stories of their childhood and some of the odds job they had in the past. After finishing eating they even play some boardgames were Carrie proved to be amazing and luckily for Ben she was on his team, so that meant that they were actual competition for Jay and Lonnie who were impressed by their efforts. The night helped the boy feel better, and even though he continuously hope that Mal came by, he at least realized that he was not alone. If she ever decided to stop seeing him to get Jane back into her life, he would be devastated but he would still have his friends to help him get over it.
The next day he overslept and found himself doing everything in slow motion so by the time he was ready it was close to lunchtime. Usually, at this time he would be going to get some food to bring to Mal now that she was in the city but he needed to at least go to the magazine to check in. When he arrived there, he found himself surrounded by chaos he soon was in meetings trying to figure everything out and time flew by. At some point, someone put a burger in his hand while he discussed the issues with their next publication and never noticed what time it was.
That night he got home past midnight wishing that he was already in bed sleeping, he needed to be at his office earlier than usual that day and also had some work to do before his first meeting. The elevator opened on his floor and he barely made it out when he saw Mal knocking on his door and for the first time since earlier yesterday Ben remembered that he never went to visit her. "Mal, hey. I'm just getting in; work was insane today."
The girl turned and if looks could kill Ben would be dead on the spot. "Sure, work was insane the day after I told you I didn't want to come to your dinner. Well isn't that a coincidence. You know what Ben you should at least have the decency to tell me that you didn't want to see me and not lied to me like you are doing now."
She passed by him intentionally bumping her shoulder with his arm. The boy took hold of her arm as she did that making her turned to look at him. "I'm not lying to you. We have problems at the magazine since two of our senior's writers quit to go work for another publication over a month ago. Sorry if I wasn't able to go looking for you at lunch or call you but things like this happened sometimes, and I guess I missed all your calls too, right?."
Mal opened and closed her mouth a couple of times making Ben think of a fish. Still, nothing came of it; it seemed like the girl never tried to contact him so she just waited for him to call and when he failed to do it she just came here to confront him? To tell him how disappointed she was that he was not there with her lunch? Mal forced her arm from his grip which wasn't hard because by this point Ben had almost let go of her with a look of annoyance directed at her. As if she could read his mind about her not calling him Mal went on the attack again. "That's not the point, and I didn't know that any of your staff had quit. You never told me anything."
Again she stood tall like she was accusing him of some horrible thing he did to her. Ben was tired, and he was not going to let her make him feel like he had done something wrong. All the conversations they had since Jane quit were about her work or what he or his friends could do to help. The only things he shared were superficials; he didn't want her to worry about him.
"Look Mal. I had a bad day at work, and I need to be there at 6 am, and I have to proofread a couple of things before that time. So I'm basically going to sleep three hours with that said excuse me but I'm going to bed now. Have a nice sleep and a good day." He turned and walked into his apartment and straight into his bed taking all of his clothes off. Once he was laying there, he took the pillow that was under his head and put it over his mouth and finally release a couple of screams filled with frustration.
Of course, he didn't manage to fall asleep at all so an hour later he took a shower change and decided to go back to his office. He walked there this time even though it was cold and the forecast said there was a chance of rain; he needed to clear his mind a little of the altercation with Mal earlier. He never knew that a sad girl was watching him crossed the street from her apartment window wishing she could take back the entire conversation they had a couple of hours ago but not having the courage to say it to him.
Notes
Thoughts?